CHARLES   PIEZ, 


UCSB  LIBRARY 


PERSONAL 
REMINISCENCES 

OF 

TAMES 
MAPES 
DODGE 


1916 


BY  CHARLES  £IEZ 

President,  Link-Belt  Company 


SYNOPSIS 

/N  these  personal  reminiscences  Mr.  Piez  tells 
of  the  struggles,  early  failures  and  final 
great  successes  of  one  of  the  most  commanding 
figures  in  American  invention  and  engineering, 
and  shows  us  the  genial,  charming  personality 
of  one  who  did  much  to  shape  our  present-day 
industrial  ideals.  The  first  part  deals  with  the 
development  of  the  conveying  and  coal-storage 
business  and  covers  a  period  of  Mr.  Dodge's  life 
down  to  about  1900. 

In  the  second  part  the  author  reveals  the  last- 
ing influence  of  Mr.  Dodge  in  softening  and  hu- 
manizing the  Taylor  system  of  management  at  the 
time  it  was  installed  in  the  Philadelphia  plant  of 
the  Link-Belt  Company.  A  number  of  important 
inventions  in  the  conveyor  and  power-transmission 
field  were  also  brought  out  after  1900.  But  im- 
portant as  all  these  achievements  are,  his  friends 
will  remember  Mr.  Dodge  longest  for  his  magnetic 
personality,  quick  sympathy,  and  never-hesitating 
helpfulness. 

Reprinted  from  American  Machinist 
January  20,  1916 
February    3,  1916 


JAMES  MAPES  DODGE 

BY  CHARLES  PIEZ 

TWENTY-FIVE  years  of  business  association,  25  years  of  inti- 
mate personal  relationship,  were  brought  to  a  close  by  the 
untimely  death  of  James  Mapes  Dodge  on  December  4,  1915,  and 
these  notes  are  penned  while  grief  is  still  poignant,  while  the  sense  of 
loss  sustained  is  still  acute.  Memory  has  been  active  in  recasting  the 
story  of  our  association,  in  reviewing  the  development  of  a  great  art, 
in  paying  tribute  to  the  genius  to  whom  that  development  was 
largely  due.  For  he  was  a  genius,  one  to  whom  the  accomplishment 
of  today  was  but  an  augury  of  the  possibility  of  tomorrow;  a  cease- 
lessly active,  dynamic  man  eternally  in  quest  of  progress,  yet  an 
easily  approachable  and  thoroughly  human  man,  with  deep  af- 
fections, tender  considerateness,  and  an  inexhaustible  and  never- 
failing  sense  of  humor. 

Mechanical  accomplishment,  even  though  its  influence  reaches 
into  every  home,  rarely  receives  wide  public  mention.     The  fact 


James  Mapes  Dodge 


William  Dana  Ewart 


Thomas  S.  Fauntleroy 


PERSONAL       REMINISCENCES       OF       JAMES       MAPES       DODGE 

that  it  has  been  a  source  of  pecuniary  profit  seems  all  sufficient  in 
the  way  of  reward.  And  yet  the  lessons  to  be  learned  from  mechan- 
ical progress  and  the  examples  set  by  our  notable  inventors,  may 
have  wider  public  application  and  deeper  public  influence  than  the 
much  heralded  attainments  of  statesmen  or  the  widely  recorded 
works  of  our  men  of  letters. 

It  is  in  the  hope  that  these  reminiscences  of  a  man  who  will 
occupy  an  important  place  in  the  mechanical  inventor's  Hall  of 
Fame,  will  prove  of  profit  to  the  workers  in  the  mechanical  arts,  that 
they  are  offered  in  these  columns. 

In  the  spring  of  1889  an  advertisement  appeared  on  the  bulletin 
board  of  the  School  of  Mines,  Columbia  College,  for  two  engineering 
draftsmen,  signed  by  the  Link-Belt  Engineering  Co.,  of  Philadelphia. 
My  application  in  response  to  this  advertisement  was  accepted,  and 
I  became  a  member  of  the  Link-Belt  organization  immediately 
thereafter.  The  vice-president  and  chief  engineer  of  that  organi- 
zation was  James  Mapes  Dodge.  He  had  been  connected  with  William 
Dana  Ewart,  the  inventor  of  link-belting,  for  some  years,  had  assisted 
him  in  the  design  of  the  detachable  chains  and  their  attachments, 
and,  more  than  any  other  man,  had  begun  the  application  of  chain 
to  purposes  of  conveying  and  elevating  material. 

This  period  was  followed  by  several  years  spent  as  superin- 
tendent of  the  malleable-iron  foundry  at  which  the  chains  were 
made,  from  which  position  he  resigned  to  conduct  some  experiments 
on  steel  castings  in  Philadelphia.  Upon  the  conclusion  of  these 
experiments,  he  became  associated  with  Edward  H.  Burr,  who  then 
had  the  Pennsylvania  agency  for  the  Ewart  Manufacturing  Co. 
Under  the  firm  name  of  Burr  &  Dodge,  the  application  of  chain 
to  conveyors  and  elevators  was  pushed  with  such  zeal  that  but  for 
the  kindly  financial  aid  of  Mr.  Burr's  father,  a  receiver  would  have 
ended  the  partners'  efforts  in  the  new  field.  The  losses  sustained 
grew  out  of  inexperience,  out  of  the  optimism  of  the  enthusiast. 
Mr.  Dodge  had  invented  a  new  chain  known  as  the  Dodge  chain,  a 
unique  and  distinctive  improvement  on  the  old  cable  chain,  and 
he  felt  he  had  practically  found  in  it  a  solution  of  all  conveyor 
problems.  Joseph  Cavanagh  was  in  those  days  the  only  salesman 
of  the  firm,  and  when  Joe  came  back  from  the  anthracite  region 
with  his  first  order  for  a  Dodge  chain  conveyor,  the  firm  members 
came  near  meeting  him  with  a  brass  band.  If  they  had  so  met  him 
and  had  known  what  the  future  held  in  store  for  them,  they  would 


PERSONAL      REMINISCENCES       OF       JAMES       MAPES       DODG 


have  had  the  band  play  a  dirge,  for  that  order  was  but  the  first  of 
the  series  that  almost  put  the  firm  out  of  business.  The  experience 
was  an  expensive  but  nevertheless  a  very  profitable  one,  for  it  was 
a  much  chastened  enthusiasm  that  met  the  future  problems;  and 
experiments  were  thereafter  conducted  at  home  instead  of  in  the 
plants  of  customers. 

By  1888  Burr  &  Dodge  and  the  New  York  office  of  the  Link-Belt 
Machinery  Co.  had  prospered  to  such  an  extent  that  a  consolidation 
of  the  two  interests  was  proposed  by  Mr.  Dodge,  and  finally  effected. 
The  Link-Belt  Engineering  Co.,  of  Philadelphia,  grew  out  of  this 
consolidation,  and  this  company  became  the  exclusive  agent  of  the 
Ewart  Manufacturing  Co.  for  the  Atlantic  Coast  States,  the  Link- 
Belt  Machinery  Co.,  organized  in  Chicago  in  1880,  retaining  the 
agency  for  the  rest  of  the  country.  While  Mr.  Ewart  was  president 
of  both  the  Link-Belt  companies,  Mr.  Dodge  was  the  executive  as 
well  as  the  engineering  head  of  the  eastern  company.  Under  his 
leadership  there  began  an  era  of  invention  and  development  that  in 
the  retrospect  appears  little  short  of  marvelous.  Over  120  patents 
were  taken  out  for  him  by  the  firm  of  Howson  &  Howson  alone, 
and  these  patents  cover  only  his  later  period  of  inventive  activity. 
His  inventions  during  this  later  period,  beginning  in  1884,  pertained 
largely  to  conveying  problems  and  to  transmission  chains. 


Mr.  Dodge  and  some  of  his  early  associates 
Office  of  Burr  8s  Dodge,  Philadelphia,  Pa. 


PERSONAL      REMINISCENCES       OF       JAM 


MAPES       DODGE 


Several  years  before  I  joined  the  organization  he  had  conceived 
the  idea  of  storing  and  reloading  anthracite  coal  by  mechanical 
means.  In  the  preparation  of  anthracite  for  the  market,  all  sizes 
from  the  largest  domestic  size  to  the  smallest  steam  size,  are  pro- 
duced. The  demand  for  these  sizes  varies  very  materially,  the  steam 
sizes  being  in  fairly  uniform  demand  the  year  through,  the  domestic 
demand  being  active  in  the  fall  and  winter  but  very  light  the  rest 
of  the  year.  To  equalize  production  and  to  take  care  of  the  wide 
market  fluctuations,  a  considerable  portion  of  the  anthracite  output 
must  be  stored  between  the  mine  and  the  market.  Storage  of 
anthracite,  when  Mr.  Dodge  entered  the  field,  consisted  largely  of 
dumping  the  cars  on  trestles  and  reloading  with  wheel-barrows. 
The  cost  averaged  fully  40  cents  for  the  round  trip,  without  taking 
into  account  the  loss  through  degradation,  which  in  this  method  of 
handling  averaged  fully  20  cents  more. 

Mr.  Dodge  conceived  the  idea  of  piling  the  coal  in  conical  piles 
and  performing  both  the  operation  of  stocking  out  and  reloading 
mechanically.  His  ideas  on  this  subject  struck  his  associates  as  so 
bold  and  radical  that  they  were  unwilling  to  jeopardize  the  financial 
integrity  of  the  conveyor  business  by  this  bold  flight  into  fields 
untrodden.  But  nothing  daunted,  he  proposed  that  they  put  up 
some  money  for  an  independent  company  and  permit  this  company 


Fig.  1. 


Original  Dodge  Coal-Storage  Plant  of  the  Reading  Ry.  at  Port  Richmond, 
Philadelphia,  Penn. — The  Beginning  of  a  Big  Business 


PERSONAL      REMINISCENCES       OF       JAMES       MAPES       DODGE 

to  install  the  storage  systems.  In  those  days,  like  most  inventors, 
Mr.  Dodge  was  considerably  longer  on  ideas  than  he  was  on  cash, 
and  he  was  therefore  under  the  constant  necessity  of  inducing  his 
moneyed  associates  to  furnish  the  funds.  Fortunately  for  both  his 
associates  and  himself  he  was  a  magnetic  and  convincing  talker 
and  finally  won  a  rather  reluctant  consent  to  his  proposition.  Ten 
thousand  dollars  was  put  up  in  cash,  and  a  company  known  as  the 
Dodge  Conveyor  Co.  was  organized.  It  contracted  to  store  and 
handle  a  certain  yearly  tonnage  for  the  Philadelphia  &  Reading 
Ry.  at  Port  Richmond.  In  spite  of  limited  means,  inexperience, 
and  the  crudest  of  crude  machinery,  his  ideas  proved  sound  and  the 
contract  financially  remunerative.  A  second  contract  was  there- 
upon secured  from  the  Pennsylvania  R.  R.  at  South  Amboy,  in  which 
an  actual  sale  of  the  machinery  was  made  to  the  railroad  company. 
The  soundness  of  the  idea  met  with  such  prompt  acceptance  that 
further  contracts  for  two  plants  were  secured  from  the  Delaware 
&  Hudson  company. 

One  of  these  covered  a  storage  plant  of  150,000  tons'  capacity, 
to  be  located  on  a  narrow  island  in  the  Hudson  River  at  Rondout, 
N.  Y.  The  system  of  storing  as  it  had  been  developed  at  that  time 
is  illustrated  in  Figs.  1  and  2,  and  consisted  of  a  mast  and  boom 
which  carried  the  stocking-out  conveyor  head  machinery.  The 


Fig.  2.     Improved  Mast-and-Boom  Plant  of  the  Pennsylvania  R.  R.  at  South  Amboy,  N.  J. 

9 


PERSONAL      REMINISCENCES       OF       JAMES       MAPES       DODG 

mast  had  to  be  securely  anchored  to  guy  ropes,  which  of  necessity 
had  to  lead  away  from  the  coal  pile.  At  Rondout,  Mr.  Dodge  almost 
met  his  Waterloo,  for  after  the  company  had  been  awarded  the  con- 
tract he  found  the  island  just  wide  enough  to  hold  the  coal  piles, 
and  to  use  his  own  expressive  phrase,  "There  wasn't  a  darn  thing 
to  anchor  the  guy  ropes  to  except  the  swift  current  of  the  Hudson 
River." 

But  the  difficulty  was  met  in  a  very  ingenious  fashion,  for  right 
on  the  spot  he  developed  the  idea  of  spanning  the  piles  with  light 
hinged  trusses  and  securing  them  against  side  wind  pressure  by 
anchor  and  guy  ropes.  This  put  the  guy  ropes  lengthwise  of  the 
island,  where  there  was  plenty  of  terra  firma  for  anchorage.  The 
change,  while  adding  considerably  to  the  cost,  added  materially 
to  the  effectiveness  of  the  storage  system,  for  it  afforded  him  the 
opportunity  for  the  invention  of  the  ribbon-bottom  conveyor,  which 
aided  so  materially  in  reducing  the  breakage  of  coal. 

Compare  the  two  cuts,  and  the  tremendous  step  ahead  attained 
by  the  invention  of  the  shear-truss  construction  will  be  apparent 
at  a  glance. 

The  unsuitability  of  Hudson  River  water  to  serve  as  an  anchorage 
for  the  mast  and  boom  construction  had  developed  the  idea  that  was 


Fig.  3.     Shear-Truss  Construction  Invented  as  a  result  of  the  Rondout  experience; 
Susquehanna  Coal  Co.'s  Plant  at  Old  Bridge,  N.  J. 


PERSONAL      REMINISCENCES       OF       JAMES       MAPES       DODG 

needed  to  round  out  and  perfect  the  system.  It  became  the  recog- 
nized method  of  storing  anthracite  coal  in  large  quantities  and  has 
remained  so.  See  Fig.  3. 

Mr.  Dodge's  invention  was  absolutely  generic,  and  he  was 
entitled  to  the  broadest  kind  of  patent  protection;  but  a  poorly 
drawn  set  of  claims  opened  the  doors  to  a  competitor,  who  sold  one 
plant.  The  patent  office,  recognizing  the  merits  of  Mr.  Dodge's 
invention,  granted  his  application  for  a  re-issue,  and  the  amended 
process  claim  was  so  carefully  and  yet  so  simply  drawn  that  we  were 
never  again  subjected  to  infringement. 

Those  days  in  the  late  eighties  and  the  early  nineties  were  active, 
interesting  days.  The  conveying  art  was  so  young  that  few  standards 
had  been  developed,  and  a  broad  field  for  invention  lay  open  before 
us.  The  shops  worked  in  a  happy  though  leisurely  fashion,  but  the 
margins  of  profits  were  large  and  there  was  no  immediate  incentive 
for  systematized  intensification  of  production.  In  1889  when  the 
plant  at  Nicetown,  Philadelphia,  was  built,  Louis  Wright  was  ap- 
pointed superintentent.  He  was  a  capable  man  who  had  served 
serveral  years  of  apprenticeship  under  Frederick  W.  Taylor,  who 
was  then  at  the  Midvale  Steel  Works.  Mr.  Wright  gradually  brought 
about  some  semblance  of  orderly  procedure  in  the  manufacturing 
departments,  though  it  was  done  only  after  a  lot  of  argument  and 
after  the  exercise  of  some  pressure.  For  Mr.  Dodge  worked  on 
impulse  and  looked  upon  any  systematic  procedure  that  harnessed 
or  directed  impulse  as  an  unnecessary  and  unwise  restriction  of 
initiative.  When  Louis  Wright  argued  that  the  execution  of  a 
customer's  order  should  take  precedence  over  the  carrying  on  of  an 
experiment,  Mr.  Dodge  very  reluctantly  assented;  but  when  Louis 
Wright  argued  for  a  further  extension  of  system  and  records,  Mr. 
Dodge  said:  "Louis,  in  the  several  years  that  you  have  been  here, 
the  only  decision  of  any  importance  that  you  unearthed  out  of  this 
mass  of  records  was  that  when  you  wanted  to  paint  a  fence  it  was 
cheaper  to  use  dressed  lumber  than  rough  lumber.  I  could  have 
guessed  that  if  you  had  asked  me."  His  contempt  for  records  in 
those  days  is  particularly  interesting  because  fifteen  years  later  he  be- 
came recognized  as  the  most  ardent  advocate  of  the  Taylor  system. 

His  attitude  toward  college  men  underwent  a  similar  change. 
Though  a  college  man  himself,  his  quick  mind  grasped  mechanical 
and  mathematical  facts  without  the  necessity  of  demonstration.  He 
looked  upon  many  of  the  mathematical  propositions  as  self-evident 
and  rebelled  at  the  idea  of  being  compelled  to  prove  axioms.  The 


PERSONAL      REMINISCENCES       OF       JAMES       MAPES       DODGE 

whole  college  curriculum  struck  him  as  a  perhaps  necessary  program 
for  dullards,  but  as  unnecessarily  restrictive  to  the  student  of  wide 
mental  grasp  and  quick  perception.  In  his  own  experience  he  felt 
that  his  work  in  the  shop  had  been  of  tremendously  greater  help 
to  him  than  his  work  at  college,  and  he  was  apt  to  minimize  in  those 
early  days  the  practical  value  of  technical  training. 

Yet  in  his  annual  address  on  the  "Money  Value  of  Technical 
Training,"  delivered  in  1903,  while  president  of  the  American 
Society  of  Mechanical  Engineers,  he  states,  "The  progress  of  the 
world,  however,  calls  for  a  better  and  more  speedy  means  of  pro- 
ducing trained  men  than  can  ever  be  developed  by  the  methods  of 
self-instruction,"  and  the  chart  accompanying  the  address  —  devel- 
oped as  the  result  of  exhaustive  analysis  —  shows  the  high  esteem  to 
which  the  graduates  of  technical  schools  had  risen. 

Our  work  had  gradually  taken  on  an  engineering  as  well  as  a 
mechanical  aspect,  and  the  rapidly  expanding  engineering  depart- 
ment gave  him  an  excellent  opportunity  to  compare  the  technically 
trained  with  the  self-trained  men.  He  realized  upon  investigation 
that  while  some  technically  trained  men  were  absolutely  lacking  in 
mechanical  instincts,  and  while  more  perhaps  were  wholly  lacking 
in  commercial  sense,  yet  on  the  whole  the  percentage  of  capable  and 
successful  men  developed  out  of  our  collegiate  employees  largely 
exceeded  those  developed  out  of  the  self-trained  class. 


Fig   4.     Circular  Storage  Buildings  of  the  Lehigh  Valley  Plant 
12 


PERSONAL      REMINISCENCES       OF       JAMES       MAPES       DODGE 


A  UNIQUE  BUT  VERY  SIMPLE 
ENGINEERING  INVENTION 

During  1893  and  the  succeeding  years  our  business  gradually 
declined  in  volume  as  a  result  of  the  general  depression  following 
the  Baring  failure,  and  we  were  compelled  in  order  to  keep  the  plant 
going  to  take  on  several  large  contracts  that  were  more  hazardous 
than  they  were  remunerative.  The  most  conspicuous  of  these  con- 
tracts was  that  taken  from  the  Lehigh  Valley  Coal  Co.  for  its  coal 
dock  at  West  Superior.  We  were  called  in  at  the  very  last  minute 
and  given  an  opportunity  to  bid.  The  problem  submitted  consisted 
in  storing  50,000  tons  of  stove  and  50,000  tons  of  nut  anthracite  coal 
under  cover,  and  40,000  tons  of  bituminous  coal  in  the  open,  the  coal 
to  be  taken  from  vessels  and  delivered  from  storage  into  cars.  The 
Lehigh  Valley  had  practically  decided  to  adopt  a  plan  consisting 
of  wooden  sheds  into  which  the  coal  was  to  be  distributed  by  means 
of  a  cable  railway.  Mr.  Dodge,  under  the  stress  of  this  seemingly 
insurmountable  competition,  developed  his  covered  storage  system, 
convinced  the  Lehigh  Valley  of  its  value,  and  secured  the  contract 
for  upward  of  $260,000,  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  the  plan  was  wholly 
untried.  The  plant  brought  with  it  a  train  of  engineering  and  me- 
chanical problems,  all  of  which  were  successfully  met,  but  the  partic- 
ular idea  which  made  it  possible  to  secure  the  contract  was  a  unique 
but  very  simple  engineering  invention. 

The  plan  submitted  by  Mr.  Dodge  included  the  use  of  two 
circular  buildings,  246  ft.  in  diameter,  90  ft.  high,  with  vertical 
retaining  walls  17  ft.  high  (see  Fig.  4).  Now  the  pressure  exerted 
by  anthracite  coal  is  about  one-third  of  water  pressure  when  the  coal 
is  level  with  the  top  of  the  wall,  and  fully  one-half  of  water  pressure 
when  the  wall  is  surcharged,  and  the  structure  necessary  to  take 
care  of  this  pressure  loomed  up  as  one  involving  prohibitive  expense. 
Imagine  a  boiler  246  ft.  in  diameter  with  a  pressure  of  510  Ibs.  per 
sq.  ft.,  and  you  will  get  some  idea  of  the  structural  problem  involved. 
But  Mr.  Dodge  decided  to  make  the  coal  sustain  the  wall,  and  while 
it  seems  paradoxical  to  say  that  the  material  that  causes  the  pres- 
sure can  be  made  to  sustain  that  pressure,  yet  that  is  exactly  what 
his  scheme  contemplated.  The  illustration,  Fig.  5,  shows  a  section 
of  the  building  and  illustrates  the  use  of  the  anchor  band  which 
solved  the  problem  in  very  simple  and  economic  fashion.  The  band 
is  circular  and  is  suspended  about  30  ft.  inside  of  the  retaining  walls. 


PERSONAL      REMINISCENCES       OF       JAMES       MAPES       DODG 

In  the  operation  of  stocking  out  coal  a  section  of  the  band  is  covered 
before  any  pressure  is  exerted  by  the  coal  against  the  corresponding 
section  of  the  wall,  and  the  necessary  anchorage  to  the  band  is 
readily  secured  by  light  rods. 

The  retaining  walls  were  constructed  of  8-in.  I-beams  and  No.  10 
corrugated  metal,  the  anchor  band  of  i^-inch  steel  3  ft.  wide,  but 
this  simple  and  cheap  construction  has  stood  up  without  flinching 
for  20  years. 

In  the  midst  of  his  activities  in  development  and  invention 
Mr.  Dodge  never  failed  to  pay  attention  to  the  human  side  of  the 
industrial  problem.  His  sunny  optimism,  his  personal  interest  in 
every  employee,  and  the  ease  with  which  he  could  be  approached 
on  personal  or  business  grounds  made  him  a  prime  favorite  among 
the  men.  His  office  door  was  always  open  to  any  employee,  no 
matter  how  lowly,  and  tales  of  unfairness  whether  of  rates  or  treat- 
ment received  earnest  attention  and  resulted  in  prompt  and  cor- 
rective action.  His  invariable  injunction  to  his  aids  concerning  the 
treatment  of  workmen  was,  "In  case  of  doubt  decide  against  the 


Fig.  5      Circular  Anchor  Band  to  which  the  outer  wall  is  secured 


PERSONAL      REMINISCENCES       OF       JAMES       MAPES       DODGE 

company  and  in  favor  of  the  man."  Men  brought  to  him  stories 
of  their  personal  troubles,  and  he  always  lent  a  helping  hand  to  tide 
them  over  a  difficulty.  Under  such  evenhanded  and  considerate 
treatment  no  threat  of  strike  ever  appeared  on  the  horizon  of  our 
Philadelphia  plant,  and  even  the  radical  changes  involved  in  the 
installation  of  the  Taylor  system  were  met  with  tolerance  and  co- 
operation. Mr.  Dodge  described  his  relationship  with  his  men  in 
unusually  happy  fashion  when,  in  answer  to  the  question,  "What  is 
your  relation  with  your  men?"  put  to  him  by  a  member  of  the 
Federal  Commission  on  Industrial  Relations,  he  said,  "Well,  I  don't 
know  exactly,  but  I  think  most  of  them  are  more  inclined  to  call 
me  Jim  than  they  are  Mr.  Dodge. "  "  Training  men  into  our  methods 
and  habits  costs  money,  so  don't  fire  a  man  unless  you  have  a  good 
reason,  and  not  then  until  after  you  have  talked  it  over  with  the 
superintendent,"  was  his  constant  admonition  to  those  in  charge 
of  employees. 

He  was  equally  sane  on  the  treatment  of  customers.  "We  are 
prepared  at  any  time  to  send  out  a  salesman  at  an  expense  of  a 
hundred  dollars  or  more  to  secure  a  customer,  and  our  accounting 
department  will  break  with  him  over  a  difference  of  40  cents." 
"If  we  allowed  every  demand  that  was  made  by  our  customers 
without  question,  we  would  save  time,  create  good  will,  and  be  money 
ahead  in  the  end,"  were  some  of  his  business  maxims. 

His  directness  of  method  was  well  illustrated  in  his  treatment  of 
our  Philadelphia  purchasing  department.  This  department,  while 
under  able  management,  had  so  buried  itself  under  a  mass  of  records 
that  an  investigation  was  ordered.  The  examination  revealed  that 
the  large  purchases  were  all  made  on  yearly  contracts  and  that, 
eliminating  these,  the  cost  of  purchasing  the  remainder  ran  about 
15  percent.  Soon  after,  during  one  of  our  morning  conferences, 
he  said,  addressing  our  buyer,  "Ed,  do  you  believe  in  the  honesty 
of  the  average  man?"  "Of  course, "  replied  Ed.  "Well,  suppose  we 
distribute  our  orders  each  morning  without  asking  for  price,  would 
we  have  to  pay  15  percent  more  than  we  pay  now?"  "No,"  said 
Ed,  "I  believe  most  of  the  sellers,  in  their  desire  to  retain  our  busi- 
ness, would  sell  much  closer  to  the  market  than  that."  "Then  we 
can  save  money  by  abandoning  our  purchasing  department,"  said 
Mr.  Dodge,  and  with  a  few  additional  words  of  enlightenment  Ed 
decided  to  return  to  simpler  methods. 


PERSONAL      REMINISCENCES      OF      JAMES       MAPES       DODGE 


MR.  DODGE'S  INTEREST  IN 
TAYLOR-WHITE  STEEL 

It  was  but  natural  that  Mr.  Dodge,  with  his  strong  leaning  to- 
ward the  new  and  untried,  should  evince  intense  interest  in  so 
epochal  an  event  in  the  mechanical  world  as  the  discovery  of  Taylor- 
White  tool  steel.  From  the  very  first  he  was  an  ardent  champion 
of  its  possibilities  and  was  eager  to  give  it  a  trial  in  our  Nicetown 
plant.  We  secured  shop  rights  for  its  use  at  both  Chicago  and  Phila- 
delphia and  immediately  proceeded  to  test  its  possibilities  when 
applied  to  the  machining  of  cast  iron.  Mr.  Taylor's  own  experiments 
had  up  to  that  time  been  confined  largely  to  the  turning  of  steel,  and 
it  was  at  our  Nicetown  plant  that  the  feed  and  speed  possibilities 
of  Taylor- White  tool  steel  applied  to  cast  iron  were  first  determined. 
Under  the  infection  of  Mr.  Dodge's  enthusiasm  our  entire  organiza- 
tion suffered  for  a  time  from  a  mild  form  of  speed  mania,  and  officials 
and  machinists  vied  with  each  other  to  establish  new  records  in 
the  amount  of  metal  removed  per  hour.  Our  line-shaft  speeds  were 
doubled,  our  power  plant  had  to  be  materially  enlarged,  and  as  a  final 
step  to  secure  the  desired  flexibility  in  both  power  and  speed,  the 
line-shafts  were  abandoned  and  individual  motor  drives  introduced 
in  their  place. 

For  a  year  or  more  the  orderly  procedure  of  our  machine  shop 
was  seriously  disarranged  by  the  attempt  to  drive  the  machine  tools 
to  the  limit  of  the  tool-steel  capacity.  The  output  was  increased, 
but  breakdowns  were  so  frequent  that  the  increase  in  expenses  more 
than  outweighed  the  advantage  of  added  output.  It  was  then  that 
Mr.  Dodge  realized  that  the  burden  of  changing  equipment  and 
methods  to  meet  the  possibilities  of  the  new  tool  steel,  was  too  severe 
to  impose  on  an  organization  already  fully  absorbed  in  looking  after 
the  needs  of  the  company's  regular  business.  He  consulted  Mr. 
Taylor  about  our  predicament,  and  Mr.  Taylor  suggested  that  we 
employ  Carl  Earth,  one  of  his  aids,  to  assume  charge  of  the  changes 
brought  about  by  the  use  of  the  Taylor- White  tool  steel.  Mr.  Earth 
had  had  considerable  experience  in  the  machining  of  steel,  but  realiz- 
ing that  we  were  suffering  from  the  lack  of  accurate  data  on  the 
speeds  and  feeds  possible  on  cast  iron,  he  at  once  inaugurated  an 
exhaustive  series  of  tests.  While  these  were  being  carried  on,  saner 
cutting  speeds  were  advocated,  the  toolroom  was  thoroughly  reor- 
ganized and  machine  tools  rearranged  and  rebuilt.  Under  Mr. 
Earth's  intelligent  direction  both  equipment  and  men  were  well 


PERSONAL      REMINISCENCES      OF      JAMES       MAPES       DODGE 

prepared  before  the  first  actual  step  of  producing  work  at  high  speed 
was  undertaken.  And  his  work  was  thoroughly  done,  for  once 
begun,  the  work  of  changing  over  to  the  new  feeds  and  speeds  pro- 
ceeded rapidly. 

While  this  work  was  going  on,  Mr.  Dodge  became  much  enamored 
of  the  Taylor  system,  which  had  but  shortly  before  been  outlined  in 
Mr.  Taylor's  famous  paper  presented  before  the  American  Society  of 
Mechanical  Engineers.  At  Mr.  Dodge's  request  Mr.  Taylor  agreed 
to  assume  general  direction  of  the  introduction  of  the  system,  and 
Mr.  Earth  was  retained  to  undertake  the  actual  work. 

While  the  work  Mr.  Barth  began  with  proceeded  rapidly  and 
very  satisfactorily,  and  while  the  actual  reorganization  of  tool-room 
and  machine-shop  equipment,  the  installation  of  functional  foreman- 
ship,  and  the  establishment  of  rates  based  on  unit  time  study  and 
supported  by  instruction  cards,  were  accomplished  in  remarkably 
good  time  and  with  less  embarrassment  than  was  thought  possible, 
the  rest  of  the  work  gave  considerable  trouble,  before  a  perfect 
scheme  of  routing  and  of  coordination  of  the  various  functions  and 
departments  was  established.  Much  of  our  trouble  arose  from  the 
facts  that  the  attempt  was  made  to  fit  the  business  to  the  system, 
and  that  insufficient  advantage  was  taken  of  methods  which  years 
of  experience  in  our  peculiar  line  had  developed.  Rigidity  in  any 
system  is  a  serious  if  not  a  fatal  disadvantage,  and  this  truth  was  as 
much  inpressed  on  Mr.  Taylor  as  on  the  rest  of  us  before  the  work 
was  completed,  for  it  was  only  after  we  made  certain  departures  from 
the  rigid  formula  of  the  system,  that  difficulties  began  to  disappear 
and  progress  became  rapid.  It  must  be  remembered  that  ours  was 
the  first  plant  of  any  size  that  was  thoroughly  systematized  on  Taylor 
lines,  and  difficulties  were  therefore  to  be  expected.  We  had  all 
labored  under  the  impression  that  the  system  was  a  complete  entity 
that  required  but  a  thorough  understanding  to  work  miracles.  We 
were  all  inclined  to  stand  aside  and  let  it  work,  until  we  found  that, 
after  all,  it  accomplished  nothing  of  itself,  that  it  merely  indicated 
the  easiest  lines  along  which  work  could  be  accomplished. 

Mr.  Dodge's  contribution  to  Mr.  Taylor's  work,  while  not  re- 
flected in  any  of  the  forms  or  details  of  the  system,  was  nevertheless 
an  important  one,  for  his  influence  lay  wholly  on  the  side  of  recog- 
nizing the  human  side  of  the  management  problem.  Mr.  Taylor's 
mind  was  essentially  analytical  and  mathematical.  He  was  inclined 
to  consider  workmen  as  wholly  impersonal  beings,  and  to  disregard 


PERSONAL      REMINISCENCES      OF      JAM 


MAPES       DODGE 


the  effect  of  prejudice  and  sentiment  on  output.  His  tendency 
originally  was  to  concentrate  all  direction  and  initiative  in  the  plan- 
ning room,  and  to  insist  that  the  men  follow  the  strict  letter  of  their 
instructions.  It  was  due  largely  if  not  wholly  to  Mr.  Dodge's 
influence  with  Mr.  Taylor  that  the  Taylor  system  lost  its  seeming 
asperities  and  harshness.  And  this  was  brought  about  not  by  any 
distinct  modifications  in  the  system  itself,  but  rather  by  cultivating 


Fig.  7.     Lobular  Gear  and 

Elliptical  Pinion 

of  Equalizing 

Mechanism 


Fig.  6.  Equalizing  Gear  for 
Long  Pitch  Conveyor  Chain 
extensively  used 


PERSONAL      REMINISCENCES      OF      JAMES       MAPES       DODG 

in  the  men  who  applied  the  system,  an  appreciation  of  the  human 
factor  in  scientific  management.  For  after  all  there  is  nothing  in- 
herent in  the  Taylor  system  that  marks  it  as  an  especially  attractive 
instrument  in  the  unwholesome  process  of  grinding  blood  money 
out  of  the  workers.  Like  every  other  method  or  system  of  indus- 
trial organization,  it  can  be  used  to  the  disadvantage  of  the  men,  but 
that  abuse  lies  in  the  application  and  not  in  the  system  itself.  As 
a  matter  of  fact  the  greater  preparation  which  a  management  must 
undergo  to  install  the  system,  the  greater  accuracy  with  which  the 
various  steps  must  be  taken,  and  the  greater  dependability  of  its 
records,  all  make  for  greater  honesty  and  a  broader  and  more  liberal 
attitude  in  its  application.  Certain  it  is  that  in  our  own  plants 
the  system  has  proved  highly  satisfactory.  That  it  has  worked  no 
hardship  on  our  workmen  is  attested  by  the  fact  that  although  a 
very  active  campaign  has  been  waged  in  Philadelphia  to  secure 
machinists  and  tool  makers  for  several  new  munitions  plants,  and 
although  high  wages  and  exceptionally  liberal  bonuses  have  been 
offered,  not  a  single  machinist  or  tool  maker  has  been  lured  away 
from  our  Philadelphia  plant. 

But  interested  as  Mr.  Dodge  was  in  the  installation  of  the  Taylor 
system,  his  active  mind  could  not  find  entertainment  in  the  slow  and 
tedious  process  of  teaching  an  old  organization  new  habits;  and  so 
he  reverted  constantly  to  the  realm  of  invention  and  improvement. 
During  the  development  of  our  conveyor  business  we  had  shown  an 
increasing  tendency  toward  the  use  of  chains  of  a  pitch  of  18  in.  and 
more.  These  chains  were  adopted  both  because  they  were  cheaper,  and 
because,  in  such  cases  as  bucket  carriers,  they  lent  themselves  better 
to  the  purposes  of  the  conveyor  structure.  One  serious  drawback 
to  the  use  of  these  chains  arose  from  the  fact  that  wheels  of  relatively 
small  diameter,  which  had  to  be  used  to  economize  head  room,  im- 
parted a  very  irregular  motion,  or  surge,  to  the  conveyor. 

A  popular  size  of  wheel  for  an  18-in.  pitch  chain  is  41  in.  in 
diameter  and  has  7  teeth.  By  looking  at  Fig.  6,  it  will  be  seen  that 
as  the  link  enters  engagement  with  the  sprocket,  it  is  carried  forward 
along  that  part  of  the  arc  that  has  a  large  horizontal  and  a  very  small 
vertical  component.  As  the  wheel  revolves,  it  carries  the  link  up 
the  ascending  arc,  where  the  horizontal  component  lessens  and  the 
vertical  component  increases.  If  the  link  in  engagement  is  con- 
sidered as  a  connecting-rod  between  the  revolving  sprocket  and  the 
remainder  of  the  conveyor  chain,  the  analogy  between  its  operation 
and  that  of  an  engine  connecting-rod  becomes  apparent.  The  only 


PERSONAL      REMINISCENCES      OF      JAMES       MAPES       DODGE 

difference  is  that  the  chain  link  is  carried  through  an  arc  of  about 
51  y2  deg.  when  the  next  link  engages,  while  the  connecting-rod 
head  describes  the  full  arc  of  360  deg.  But  in  spite  of  the  small  arc 
passed  through,  there  is  a  decided  acceleration  and  retardation 
during  the  engagement  of  each  chain  link.  In  a  conveyor  employing 
18-in.  pitch  chain  and  running  at  120  ft.  per  minute  these  pulsations 
occur  80  times  per  minute;  and  when  the  conveyor  is  long,  they 
become  greatly  magnified  by  the  elasticity  of  the  chain.  The  re- 
sulting surging  of  the  conveyor  is  decidedly  destructive  to  the  in- 
tegrity of  the  conveyor  mechanism,  besides  being  unsightly  in 
appearance. 

Mr.  Dodge  solved  this  problem  in  characteristically  simple 
fashion  by  imparting  pulsations  to  the  rotating  conveyor  shaft 
which  completely  counteracted  the  pulsations  in  the  conveyor. 


Figs.  8  to  12.  Steps  in 
the  development  of  Mr. 
Dodge's  Bushed  Silent 
Chain 


Fig.  8.     Ghost  view  of  Mr.  Dodge's 
Pin-Bushed- Joint  Silent  Chain 


PERSONAL      REMINISCENCES       OF       JAMES       MAPES       DODG 

This  was  accomplished  by  using  between  the  head  and  the 
countershaft  a  set  of  gears,  of  which  the  pinion  was  elliptical  and  the 
gear  lobular,  the  number  of  gear  lobes  corresponding  to  the  number 
of  teeth  in  the  conveyor  sprocket,  see  Fig.  7.  The  gears  imparted 
the  desired  corrective  action  to  the  shaft,  and  the  conveyor  chain  at 
once  assumed  habits  of  regularity.  Equalizing  gears,  as  we  call 
these  compensating  gears,  have  been  almost  universally  adopted  for 
driving  long-pitch  chain  conveyors. 

In  spite  of  the  great  varieties  of  chain  which  we  manufactured, 
and  in  spite  of  the  very  considerable  contributions  which  Mr. 
Dodge's  inventive  genius  had  made  to  this  part  of  the  work,  he 
remained  under  the  impression  that  the  universal  chain  had  not  yet 


Fig.  9 


Fig.  11 


Fig.  10 


Fig.  12 

Figs.  9  and   11.     English  type  using  plain  link  and  pin.     Figs.   10  and   12.    Elements  of 
Dodge  type  of  Bushed  Silent  Chain 


PERSONAL      REMINISCENCES       OF       JAMES       MAPES       DODGE 

been  developed.  He  had  a  theory  that  if  you  kept  yourself  in  a 
receptive  mental  condition,  some  thought  wave  carrying  the  solution 
of  the  problem  confronting  you,  would  strike  a  sympathetic  chord  in 
your  mind,  and  he  had  a  habit  of  sensitizing  his  mind  to  possible 
impressions. 

Some  time  in  1899  he  conceived  the  idea  of  the  silent  chain  — 
that  peculiar  form  of  link  which  greatly  reduced  the  noise  of  engage- 
ment with  the  sprocket.  When  he  got  to  the  patent  office,  however, 
he  found  that  Hans  Renold,  of  Manchester,  England,  had  anticipated 
him.  So  highly  did  Mr.  Dodge  value  the  opportunities  that  this 
type  of  chain  offered,  that  I  was  immediately  dispatched  to  England 
to  secure  the  American  rights  from  Mr.  Renold.  This  was  done  in 
1900,  and  in  the  following  year  we  placed  upon  this  market  the  first 
American-made  Renold  Silent  Chain.  Our  business  in  this  new  line 
developed  rapidly  —  more  rapidly  at  first  than  our  experience 
warranted  —  but  we  learned  rapidly,  and  with  Mr.  Renold's  ex- 
perience to  draw  on,  avoided  many  of  the  pitfalls  that  usually  beset 
new  ventures.  But  we  were  unwilling  to  proceed  as  cautiously  in 
the  application  of  the  chain  as  Mr.  Renold  was  proceeding,  and 
with  the  daring  that  is  characteristic  of  American  business  we  soon 
launched  into  the  field  of  large  power  transmissions. 

The  inherent  weakness  of  the  original  English  type  of  chain 
rapidly  developed  in  these  larger  installations,  for  pins  began  to  cut 
and  the  holes  in  the  links  to  enlarge.  We  tried  high-carbon  steel 
links,  and  then  turned  to  casehardening  both  links  and  pins;  but  these 
proved  but  partial  remedies.  Mr.  Renold,  who  had  in  the  mean- 
time encountered  the  same  difficulty,  tried  to  increase  durability  by 
forcing  casehardened  steel  thimbles  into  the  eyes  of  the  links.  But 
it  was  not  until  Mr.  Dodge  invented  the  bushed  silent  chain  that 
this  new  medium  of  power  transmission  achieved  general  and  success- 
ful application.  Instead  of  adhering  to  circular  bushings,  Mr. 
Dodge  employed  through  bushings,  or  liners,  as  an  examination  of 
Figs.  8  to  12  will  reveal,  and  by  this  means  succeeded  in  giving  to  each 
set  of  opposing  links  a  bearing  extending  across  the  full  width  of  the 
chain  —  a  unique  and  heretofore  unheard-of  result  in  the  cylindrical 
bearing  of  a  multi-leaf  chain.  With  both  pins  and  bushings  hardened, 
and  with  avenues  of  lubrication  opened  up  by  the  peculiar  con- 
struction of  the  joint,  the  difficulties  standing  in  the  way  of  the 
rapid  expansion  of  the  silent-chain  business  were  cleared  away,  and 
Mr.  Dodge  had  achieved  another  conquest  of  the  impossible. 


PERSONAL      REMINISCENCES      OF      JAMES       MAPES       DODGE 

As  an  evidence  of  the  versatility  of  his  genius  it  is  interesting 
to  recall  that  in  1873  he  secured  a  patent  on  a  chain-oiling  street-car 
axle  bearing,  perhaps  the  very  first  self-oiling  bearing  employing  a 
chain  to  lift  and  distribute  the  lubricant.  The  folding  theater  seat, 
in  which  the  back  assumes  a  vertical  position  when  the  seat  is  folded 
up,  and  the  wire  hat-rack  so  universally  used  under  the  seats  of 
theater  chairs,  are  both  contributions  of  Mr.  Dodge  to  the  con- 
venience of  the  public. 

But  his  friends  will  longest  remember  his  singularly  magnetic 
personality,  his  quick  sympathy,  his  never  hesitating  helpfulness; 
and  they  will  remember  too  his  buoyant  good-fellowship,  his  un- 
failing wit  and  his  unusual  ability  as  a  raconteur.  His  conception 
of  duty  to  his  family,  to  his  employees  and  associates,  and  to  the 
public,  was  a  broad  and  generous  one,  and  he  strived  conscientiously 
to  discharge  it.  His  life  was  therefore  a  full  one,  and  measured  by 
accomplishment,  by  public  and  personal  duties  well  performed,  a 
highly  successful  one. 


Mr.  Dodge  telling  one  of  his  stories 

Reading  from  left  to  right:  Edward  H.  Burr,  Bronson  B.  Tuttle,  Thomas  S.  Fauntleroy, 

Edward  A.  Turner,  Alfred  A.  Pope,  John  H.  Whittemore,  James  M.  Dodge, 

William  D.  Ewart,  S.  Howard  Smith 

23 


Book  280 


THE  LIBRARY 
UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 

Santa  Barbara 


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